Get Started with Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, Basix Tutorials from Vectortuts+

Get started with Adobe Illustrator and Indesign with this handy collection of beginner tutorials from the archives at Vectortuts+. We're adding to our Basix category all the time, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay upto date with all the news, articles and tutorials as we publish them.

Adobe Illustrator Basix

Type is an essential part of Illustrator; whether you're desktop publishing, designing logos, or using type for image building, you'll be reaching for the Type Tool. This guide comprehensively covers the essentials of what is a huge amount of Illustrator functionality, which is type.

In Adobe Illustrator, the Blend Tool can help you create impressive color blends. But there is more to it than you might know. This comprehensive guide can help you unlock your creative potential and teaches the features, shortcuts, and in depth methods that the Blend Tool has to offer.

You've probably used the Pathfinder panel to combine shapes and make new ones. But do you often find yourself clicking (and undoing) each icon in the panel until you get the look you want? Wouldn't it be easier to take some time and learn exactly what each function does? Here's a look at the über-useful Pathfinder panel. The Pathfinder Effects, which are found under the Effects menu, are covered in video format in this tutorial.

You may know about RGB and CMYK, but how about LAB or HSB? With all these color choices and ways to use them it's often easy to get confused. In this introduction to Illustrators color tools you will learn about the different color spaces, how they work and what tools you can use to get the most out of them. Let's get familiar with the powerful color tools that Illustrator offers!

Illustrator's Paintbrush Tool (B) and Brush Panel are some of it's most powerful tools. With the Paintbrush Tool (B) and Brush Panel you can dress up your vector paths into compelling flourishes, patterns, tapered edges, and more. In this tutorial, I will break down the basics of the Paintbrush Tool and Brush Panel and show you how to create your own brushes.

If you use Adobe Illustrator, then it's almost certain that you use the Pen tool when creating your paths. This comprehensive guide aims to introduce or remind you of features, shortcuts, and methods for working with what is arguably Adobe's most essential tool.

This tutorial on the Recolor Artwork dialogue box will drastically increase your ability to experiment with color and to try a variety of new color schemes quickly. In this tutorial we will cover the basics of Swatches and Color Guide and how they can be used in conjunction with the Recolor Artwork feature.

What are all those eyeballs, colored squares and double rings on Illustrator's Layers panel? They are all visual cues that let you work better and smarter with layers. Watch this Quick Tip and feel the power!

This screencast covers fun with the Tilde key and Adobe Illustrator. Works with any Shape Tool, the Line Segment Tool, the Arc Tool, the Spiral Tool, and more. Use this technique to quickly make complex shape patterns.

Sometimes when you're working at a very large magnification, it can be hard to see the overall picture. In this screencast, we'll show you a neat trick using the Navigator panel, that saves you the hassle of zooming in an out constantly. We'll also show how you can save custom views that will speed up your workflow.

A quick look at the little-known, but very useful Group Selection tool in Adobe Illustrator. This tool allows you to select individual object within groups, as well as sub groups within groups. Watch the demonstration video to learn the usefulness of this tool and how to work with it.

Learn how to work with Workspaces in Adobe Illustrator. Workspaces allow you to arrange the Panels and other interface elements in Illustrator. Learn to work with the built-in default Workspaces Illustrator CS4 comes with, as well as how to customize your own workspaces to suit the type of job you're working on.

In this tutorial you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about one of the most powerful Adobe Illustrator Tools – Transformation. Discover how it works, learn multiple ways of transforming objects, study the tools of transformation, and many other useful techniques.

Importing type into Indesign can seem like a straight forward process, either copy and paste or use the place option. It is definitely a process designers take for granted. This tut will illustrate the capabilities InDesign offers when importing type using the "Show import options" feature. In turn this will give insight on how you – the designer – can take full control over importing and placing type.

InDesign can handle a variety of graphics including jpg, eps, pdf, tiff, psd and most Adobe formats to name a few. InDesign doesn't actually place the graphic into the document. Instead it makes a link to the original file and generates a preview within the document. In this Quick Tip you will learn about the various ways you can import image files into an InDesign document and how to replace and re-scale them.

Since CS4, InDesign has held the capability to import multiple graphics quickly and all at once. The feature allows the user to place a number of graphics on a document arranged within a grid. This can be particularly useful if you are designing a contact sheet, story board or similar structure. Learn more about importing multiple graphics into Indesign in the following Quick Tip.

When using dashes you have three options available, a hyphen, an en dash and an em dash. Choosing the right dash for the job in hand is usually overlooked and misunderstood. This Quick Tip will outline the differences between the three dashes as well as advice on when and how to use them correctly within your designs.

As you will have heard countless times, white space is a very important element to a successful layout. A large proportion of a white space will typically be occupied by margins. The purpose of this tut is to give new InDesign users the knowledge on setting up margins and their functions relating to two main layout types, which are single and facing page layouts.

If you regularly use InDesign, you may find that from time to time a file may be corrupt and glitch. In this Quick Tip you will learn a technique that may help recover your file in just a few easy steps.

This tutorial shows how you can quickly upload your InDesign document for collaborative online commenting via Acrobat.com. This is a great trick if you work as part of a remote team, or need quick feedback from clients, best of all, the comments stay in your InDesign document!

Adobe In Design lets you wrap text around any object, including text frames and imported images. There are different styles to choose from and some features you can set up including the distance between the text and object frame. In the following Quick Tip you will learn more about basic image and text placement in InDesign. Let's get started!

The Story Editor feature within InDesign is a great tool to know and utilise. Once mastered, you will be able to edit text clearly without distraction from formatting. Story Editor also has other advantages when handling text heavy documents. Instead of zooming and moving back and forth, the Story Editor will present the user with simple easy to read text. OK lets take a look.

Have you ever wondered what the expand appearance command is used for? This video Quick Tip will show you how. Aimed at the Basix user, you will see up close how special effects are applied via the appearance panel and how to make the effect a solid shape.

The new layers panel added to InDesign CS5 is packed with features that can really speed up your operating pace. The panel now resembles Adobe's Illustrator Layer panel and has borrowed many of its useful features. So if you are new InDesign or have simply overlooked this addition read on.

The Track Changes panel is a handy feature that gives the user the ability to view all significant changes made to an existing story. Changes can be kept for reference or discarded once checked and approved. The feature can also be useful when there is more than one contributor working on the same document.